PREPARING FOR THE MARCH.
CONGRATULATIONS AND REJOICINGS--SHERMAN'S ADDRESS TO HIS ARMY--
INCIDENTS OF THE CAMPAIGN--APPEARANCE OF ATLANTA AND ITS
ENVIRONS--HOOD'S NORTHWARD MARCH--HOW CORSE HELD THE FORT--
SHERMAN'S STERN WORK AT ATLANTA--EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS--
ORGANIZING FOR THE MARCH TO THE SEA--SKETCHES OF HOWARD AND
SLOCUM--ORDERS FOR THE CAMPAIGN--CUTTING OFF ALL COMMUNICATION
WITH THE NORTH--ATLANTA IN RUINS--MARCHING TOWARD THE SEA.
Sherman and his command took possession of Atlanta with mingled
emotions. There was much regret for the long line of graves of gallant
men that marked the path from Chattanooga; most of all, for that of
the loved and trusted McPherson. Yet there was much exultation at the
great victory won, which had struck the Confederacy a death blow and
sent rejoicing to every loyal heart in all the Union. Congratulations
poured in. Lincoln telegraphed to Sherman: "The National thanks are
rendered by the President to Major-General W. T. Sherman and the
gallant officers and soldiers of his command before Atlanta, for the
distinguished ability and perseverance displayed in the campaign in
Georgia, which, under Divine favor, has resulted in the capture of
Atlanta. The marches, battles, sieges and other military operations,
that have signalized the campaign, must render it famous in the annals
of war, and have entitled those who have participated therein to the
applause and thanks of the Nation." And Grant telegraphed from City
Point: "In honor of your great victory I have ordered a salute to be
fired with shotted guns from every battery bearing upon the enemy. The
salute will be fired within an hour, amid great rejoicing."
These and other similar dispatches Sherman communicated to his army,
together with the news of illuminations, flag-raisings, bell-ringings,
mass-meetings and other scenes of rejoicing throughout the country. He
also issued the following congratulatory order:
"The officers and soldiers of the Armies of the Cumberland, Ohio and
Tennessee, have already received the thanks of the Nation through its
President and Commander-in-Chief; and it now only remains with him
who has been with you from the beginning, and who intends to stay all
the time, to thank the officers and the men for their intelligence,
fidelity and courage displayed in the campaign of Atlanta.
"On the first day of May our armies were lying in garrison, seemingly
quiet, from Knoxville to Huntsville, and our enemy lay behind his
rocky-faced barrier at Dalton, proud, defiant, and exulting. He had had
time since Christmas to recover from his discomfiture on the Mission
Ridge, with his ranks filled, and a new Commander-in-Chief, second to
none of the Confederacy in reputation for skill, sagacity and extreme
popularity.
"All at once our armies assumed life and action, and appeared before
Dalton; threatening Rocky Face, we threw ourselves upon Resaca, and the
Rebel army only escaped by the rapidity of its retreat, aided by the
numerous roads with which he was familiar, and which were strange to
us.
"Again he took post at Allatoona, but we gave him no rest, and by a
circuit toward Dallas, and a subsequent movement to Ackworth, we gained
the Allatoona Pass. Then followed the eventful battles about Kenesaw,
and the escape of the enemy across the Chattahoochee River.
"The crossing of the Chattahoochee, and breaking of the Augusta road,
was most handsomely executed by us, and will be studied as an example
in the art of war. At this stage of our game, our enemies became
dissatisfied with their old and skilful commander, and selected one
more bold and rash. New tactics were adopted. Hood first boldly and
rapidly, on the 20th of July, fell on our right at Peach Tree Creek,
and lost.
"Again, on the 22d, he struck our extreme left, and was severely
punished; and finally again, on the 28th he repeated the attempt on our
right, and that time must have been satisfied, for since that date he
has remained on the defensive. We slowly and gradually drew our lines
about Atlanta, feeling for the railroads which supplied the Rebel army
and made Atlanta a place of importance.
"We must concede to our enemy that he met these efforts patiently and
skilfully, but at last he made the mistake we had waited for so long,
and sent his cavalry to our rear, far beyond the reach of recall.
Instantly our cavalry was on his only remaining road, and we followed
quickly with our principal army, and Atlanta fell into our possession
as the fruit of well-concerted measures, backed by a brave and
confident army.
"This completed the grand task which had been assigned us by our
Government, and your General again repeats his personal and official
thanks to all the officers and men composing this army, for the
indomitable courage and perseverance which alone could give success.
"We have beaten our enemy on every ground he has chosen, and have
wrested from him his own Gate City, where were located his foundries,
arsenals and work-shops, deemed secure on account of their distance
from our base, and the seeming impregnable obstacles intervening.
Nothing is impossible to an army like this, determined to vindicate a
Government which has rights wherever our flag has once floated, and is
resolved to maintain them at any and all cost.
"In our campaign many, yea, very many of our noble and gallant comrades
have preceded us to our common destination, the grave; but they have
left the memory of deeds, on which a Nation can build a proud history.
McPherson, Harker, McCook, and others, dear to us all are now the
binding links in our minds that should attach more closely together the
living, who have to complete the task which still lays before us in the
dim future.
"I ask all to continue as they have so well begun, the cultivation of
the soldierly virtues that have ennobled our own and other countries.
Courage, patience, obedience to the laws and constituted authorities
of our Government; fidelity to our trusts, and good feeling among each
other; each trying to excel the other in the practice of those high
qualities, and it will then require no prophet to foretell that our
country will in time emerge from this war, purified by the fires of war
and worthy its great founder, Washington."
Sherman had, on August 12th, been made a Major-General in the Regular
Army.
It was possible now and even after to recall many dramatic and even
humorous incidents of the campaign. At one point Sherman's soldiers,
looking back, saw a line of bridges in flames over a stream they had
just crossed.
"Hello, Charley," exclaimed one, "Uncle Billy Sherman has set the river
on fire." "Well," replied Charley, "if he has I reckon its all right."
Their fun, even, showed their confidence.
The Rebels also came to have a remarkable degree of confidence in
Sherman's ability. The rapidity of his marches and the readiness
with which his armies rebuilt roads and bridges bewildered them. It
was after a time a current saying in the Rebel camp that there was
no use in burning bridges, for Sherman carried a large assortment of
duplicates along with him to replace them. Then, when Wheeler's Cavalry
was sent north to cut Sherman's communications at the rear, a Rebel
soldier remarked one day: "Well, the Yanks will have to git up and git,
now, for I heard General Johnston himself say that General Wheeler had
blown up the tunnel near Dalton and the Yanks would have to retreat
because they could get no more rations." "Oh shucks," said another,
"don't you know that old Sherman carries a duplicate tunnel along?"
On September 6th, a writer in _The New York Tribune_, described the
appearance of the captured city, at the entrance of the troops, as
follows:
"The Twentieth Corps is now located in the famous city, occupying the
forts and earthworks so recently filled by the Rebels. The city was
captured by Colonel Coburn, Thirty-third Indiana, on the 2d inst.,
who was sent by General Slocum from the Chattahoochee River on a
reconnoisance. The same day the corps followed in. The works of the
enemy are of the most formidable character, embracing a circuit of some
twelve miles. The abattis, palisades, rifle pits, ramparts, lunettes,
redoubts, redans and varied forms of earthworks, exhibit every variety
of defensive expedient used in modern warfare. Nothing in military
experience has surpassed the industry of the enemy, in this campaign,
except that of our own. Here, he had some 1,500 negro men constantly at
work, and marched them off, with tools on shoulder, when he left. The
hills at all points around the city afforded good positions for such
works.
[Illustration: BATTLE OF ATLANTA.
From painting by J. E. Taylor.]
"This is a peculiar city, with streets diverging from the centre and
running out upon ridges while the intervening spaces are not built
upon, just as if the map were a wagon-wheel and the business were near
and around the hub and the residences were built along the spokes to
the outer rim. Many of these residences are elegant and convenient,
with large lots and fine shrubbery. The native growth is a mixture of
small oak and pine, while the hand of culture has interspersed the
China tree, Grape, Myrtle, Rose, Laurel, Holly, Honey-suckle, Sensitive
plant, and a multitude of beautiful shrubs, full of odors and rich
colors. Indeed, nothing can exceed the beauty of the plants and trees
of this region.
"The city has contained a population of eighteen thousand inhabitants
(about six thousand are here now), and on account of the salubrity of
the climate and purity of its waters, it being on the dividing ridge
between the Gulf and the Atlantic, has become a place of residence to
many wealthy persons.
"Here figs are now ripe and hanging on the trees, this being the second
crop. Grapes grow in abundance, and wine is made of a delicious flavor.
"The houses are, many of them, disfigured with marks of our shot,
splintered cornices and doorways--shattered roofs and chimneys,
perforated walls and torn fences show the frightful look of these
swift messengers whirling night and day over the doomed place. Many
a tenement has its underground retreat; some are lined with cotton
bales, some with timbers, and some banked around with earth.
"When the enemy's troops were about to leave they set fire to immense
trains of cars and wagons, loaded with army stores and ammunition. More
than a hundred cars were burned at the Augusta depot, shell, torpedoes,
fireballs, and boxes of ammunition popping, blazing and roaring, shook
the city and were heard plainly by us at the river. When Colonel Coburn
entered the city they were exploding in the forts, and sounded like the
continual discharge of artillery.
"What machinery had not been removed has been destroyed. The great
rolling mill has been taken to Augusta, and it is said, will be taken
to Deep River, North Carolina, and put up. Our position here cuts the
enemy off from his greatest iron works in Northern Georgia. There are
some of considerable extent yet used by them near Selma, Alabama. We
see fire brick here which are made near Augusta, the bed of clay having
been discovered since the war; before that time they were procured in
the North. We see also in the ruins of the rolling mill a quantity of
gunboat iron five inches thick, ready rolled for plating.
"The surrounding county is hilly and poor. South of this the water is
not good, and the land is much lower and richer. To the east, about
fifteen miles, is Stone Mountain, a grand elevation of more than two
thousand feet, affording a prospect of unequalled extent and beauty.
"It is a solitary sugar-loaf, and looms up from the horizon gray and
grand. Northwest, some eight miles, is the Chattahoochee River, a
yellow, muddy and swift-running stream, some two hundred yards wide.
Chattahoochee means 'blossoming rocks.' The Cherokees so named it
from a great ledge of beautifully-colored rock on its banks, which
resembles flowers. The river of 'blossoming rocks' is anything but a
beautiful stream. Peach Tree Creek, the now famous scene of the battle
of the 20th of July, is three miles north, a muddy, deep slimy stream.
Its true name is 'Pitch-Tree,' from a great pitch-pine tree on its
banks. The Indians called it 'Pitch-Tree.'
"The whole face of the earth is marked and scared for many miles around
with the rival fortifications."
A quarter of a century has nearly obliterated them all.
A series of military operations around Atlanta followed. Further
pursuit of Hood's army was for a time suspended while Sherman's army
rested, and its leader was planning the next step in the campaign. Thus
passed the month of September. Many changes occurred in the composition
and organization of the army. The field portion of the Army of the
Tennessee was consolidated into two corps numbered Fifteenth and
Seventeenth, and commanded, during the temporary absence of Logan and
Blair, by P. J. Osterhaus and T. E. G. Ransom, General Howard retaining
his place at the head of that army which now lay at East Point, and
the Sixteenth corps now in the Mississippi Valley. The Army of the
Cumberland, under General Thomas, was in Atlanta. The Army of the Ohio
was at Decatur under General Cox, General Schofield having returned
temporarily to Knoxville. Atlanta was carefully fortified, on a smaller
but stronger scale than had been done by Johnston, so that it might be
held by a comparatively small force when Sherman's main army had left.
As for the Rebel army, it changed its tactics altogether, and was
soon moving westward and northward. Apparently Hood's intention was
by, as he said, towing him back, to cut Sherman's communications, and
if possible carry the war back into Tennessee. If Hood would only
march back to Tennessee, Sherman would gladly give him rations and
transportation for the journey. Hood did march back, and the result of
his doing so may be summed up at this point in a few words. He tried
to destroy the garrisons Sherman had left behind him here and there,
but Sherman turned on him all but Slocum's Corps, so that he utterly
failed to do so. French's Division of the Rebel army, for example,
attacked Allatoona, where Howard had placed a handful of troops.
General Corse hastened with help from Rome. French sent in a note to
Corse, summoning him to surrender, and threatening that if he did not
do so he would be attacked, and every man of his command massacred. To
this monstrous message the undaunted Corse defiantly replied that the
Rebels were welcome to come and take the place if they thought they
were able. French immediately assaulted the place with great fury, and
again and again his overwhelming columns surged against the works.
But at nightfall they were compelled to retire with dreadful loss.
Next morning Sherman reached the top of Kenesaw, to within signalling
distance of Corse, eighteen miles away. Signal flags waved from peak to
peak, conveying Sherman's message to Corse, which has been idealized
in a popular song, "Hold the fort, for I am coming." Corse's reply has
become historic. He had had a chip from his cheek shot away by a Rebel
ball, but was only the more determined to hold out. He said to Sherman,
"I am short part of an ear and cheekbone, but am able to whip all hell
yet!"
During October, Hood moved to the northwest, Howard following him
up vigorously. At last, at the end of the month, as he ran toward
Gaylesville, Ala., Sherman decided to let Hood go, trusting to
Schofield and Thomas, whom he sent with troops to Nashville, to deal
with him, should he enter Tennessee. He did enter Tennessee, and met
his fate at Franklin and Nashville.
But to return to Sherman's work at Atlanta, before Hood's flanking
and final flight. Sherman determined to march forward through Georgia
to the sea, and to make Atlanta, as he left it behind him, a purely
military post, occupied and controlled solely by his army. On September
4th he made this order:
"The City of Atlanta, belonging exclusively for warlike purposes, it
will at once be vacated by all except the armies of the United States
and such civilian employes as may be retained by the proper departments
of the Government.... At a proper time full arrangements will be made
for a supply to the troops of all the articles they may need over and
above clothing, provisions, etc., furnished by Government, and on no
pretence whatever will traders, manufacturers, or sutlers, be allowed
to settle in the limits of fortified places; and if they manage to come
in spite of this notice the quartermaster will seize their stores,
apply them to the use of the troops and deliver the parties, or other
unauthorized citizens who thus place their individual interest above
that of the United States, over to the hands of some provost-marshal,
to be put to labor on forts or conscripted into one of the regiments or
battery already in service. The same military principles will apply to
all military posts south of Atlanta."
If the people of Atlanta had already become panic-stricken, what shall
be said of their state of mind when this thunderbolt fell upon them?
Consternation is far too weak a word. The Mayor and City Council made
a formal and impassioned appeal to Sherman to revoke it. They said, in
part:
"At first view, it struck us that the measure would involve
extraordinary hardship and loss, but since we have seen the practical
execution of it, so far as it had progressed, and the individual
condition of many people, and heard their statements as to the
inconveniences, loss, and suffering attending it, we are satisfied
that it will involve, in the aggregate, consequences appalling and
heartrending.
"We know your mind and time are constantly occupied with the duties
of your command, which almost deters us from asking your attention to
this matter; but thought it might be that you had not considered the
subject in all its awful consequences, and that on more reflection you,
we hope, would not make this people an exception to all mankind, for we
know of no such instance ever having occurred; surely none such in the
United States; and what has this helpless people done that they should
be driven from their homes, to wander as strangers, outcasts, and
exiles, and to subsist on charity?"
To this Sherman replied at considerable length, in explicit and
unmistakable terms. He had, he said, read their appeal carefully and
he gave full credit to their statements of the distress that was about
to be caused to the people of Atlanta. But there were greater issues
involved than the personal comfort and welfare of these people. He said:
"I cannot revoke my order. I have to prepare for a future struggle in
which millions, yea, hundreds of good people outside of Atlanta have
a deep interest. We must have peace, not only in Atlanta, but in all
America. To have peace, the Rebel armies must be defeated. To defeat
them, we must reach them in their recesses. My military plans make
it necessary for the inhabitants to go away, and I can only renew my
offer of services to make their exodus in any direction as easy and
comfortable as possible.
"War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it. Those who brought war on
our country deserve all the curses and maledictions a people can pour
out. I had no hand in making this war, and I will make more sacrifices
to-day than any of you to secure peace. But you cannot have peace and a
division of our country. We don't want your negroes, or your houses, or
your land, or anything that you have, but we do want, and will have, a
just obedience to the laws of the United States. That we will have, and
if it involves the destruction of your improvements we cannot help it.
"You have heretofore read public sentiment in your newspapers. They
live by falsehood and excitement, and the quicker you seek for truth
in other quarters the better for you. You began this war without one
jot or tittle of provocation. I myself have seen in Missouri, Kentucky,
Tennessee, and Mississippi hundreds and thousands of women and children
fleeing from your own armies and desperadoes, hungry and with bleeding
feet. In Memphis, Vicksburg, and Mississippi we fed thousands upon
thousands of the families of Rebel soldiers, left on our hands, and
whom we could not see starve. Now that war comes home to you, you feel
very differently--you deprecate its horrors. But you did not feel them
when you were sending car-loads of soldiers and ammunition, and were
moulding shells and shot to carry war into Kentucky and Tennessee, and
desolate the homes of hundreds and thousands of good people who only
asked to live in peace at their old homes under the government of their
inheritance.
"But, when peace does come, you may call upon me for anything. Then I
will share with you the last cracker, and watch with you to guard your
homes and families against danger from every quarter. Now you must go,
and take with you the old and feeble, feed and nurse them, and build
for them in more quiet places proper habitations to shield them against
the weather until the mad passions of men cool down, and allow the
Union and Peace once more to settle on your old homes in Atlanta."
Sherman also had some correspondence with Hood on the same subject. He
notified Hood of the order he had issued and proposed that hostilities
be suspended for ten days while the people of Atlanta were being
removed. Hood agreed to the truce, saying that he did not consider that
he had any alternative in the matter. But he took occasion of this
correspondence to denounce Sherman's conduct in the strongest terms,
concluding his letter as follows:
"Permit me to say, the unprecedented measure you propose transcends
in studied and iniquitous cruelty all acts ever before brought to
my attention in this dark history of the war. In the name of God
and humanity, I protest, believing you are expelling from homes and
firesides wives and children of a brave people."
Sherman read these words with some irritation and with some contempt,
and then promptly replied, saying:
"You style the measures proposed 'unprecedented,' and appeal to 'the
dark history of war for a parallel as an act of studied and ingenious
cruelty.' It is not unprecedented, for General Johnston himself very
wisely and properly removed the families all the way from Dalton down,
and I see no reason why Atlanta should be excepted. Nor is it necessary
to appeal to 'the dark history of war,' when recent and modern
examples are so handy. You yourself burned dwelling-houses along your
parapet; and I have seen, to-day, fifty houses that you have rendered
uninhabitable because they stood in the way of your forts and men. You
defended Atlanta on a line so close to the town that every cannon-shot,
and many musket-shots from our line of investment, that overshot their
mark, went into the habitations of women and children. General Hardee
did the same thing at Jonesboro' and General Johnston did the same last
summer at Jackson, Mississippi.
"I have not accused you of heartless cruelty, but merely instance these
cases of very recent occurrence, and could go on and enumerate hundreds
of others, and challenge any fair man to judge which of us has the
heart of pity for the families of 'brave people.' I say it is kindness
to these families of Atlanta to remove them at once from scenes that
women and children should not be exposed to; and the 'brave people'
should scorn to commit their wives and children to the rude barbarians
who thus, as you say, violate the rules of war as illustrated in the
pages of its 'dark history.'
"In the name of common sense, I ask you not to 'appeal to a just
God' in such a sacrilegious manner--you who, in the midst of peace
and prosperity, have plunged a nation into war, dark and cruel war;
who dared and badgered us into battle; insulted our flag; seized
our arsenals and forts that were left in the honorable custody of
a peaceful ordinance sergeant; seized and made prisoners even the
very first garrisons sent to protect your people against negroes
and Indians; long before any other act was committed by the, to you
'hateful Lincoln Government;' tried to force Missouri and Kentucky into
rebellion, in spite of themselves; falsified the vote of Louisiana;
turned loose your privateers to plunder unarmed ships; expelled Union
families by the thousands, burned their houses, and declared by acts of
your Congress the confiscation of all debts due Northern men for goods
had and received. Talk thus to the Marines, but not to me, who have
seen these things, and who will this day make as much sacrifices for
the peace and honor of the South as the best-born Southerner among you.
If we must be enemies, let us be men, and fight it out as we proposed
to-day, and not deal in such hypocritical appeals to God and humanity.
"God will judge us in due time, and he will pronounce whether it will
be humane to fight with a town full of women and the families of 'a
brave people' at our back, or to remove them in time to places of
safety among their own friends and people."
There was also some correspondence between the two Generals on the
subject of the exchange of prisoners. Hood began it, and Sherman
replied, consenting to such an exchange, man for man, and equal for
equal, and then added:
"By your laws all men eligible for service are _ipso facto_ soldiers,
and a very good one it is; and, if needed for civil duty, they are
simply detailed soldiers. We found in Atlanta about a thousand of these
fellows, and I am satisfied they are fit subjects of exchange; and if
you will release an equal number of our poor fellows at Andersonville
I will gather these together and send them as prisoners. They seem
to have been detailed for railroad and shop duty, and I do not ask
for them an equal number of my trained soldiers, but will take men
belonging to any part of the United States Army subject to your control.
"We hold a good many of your men styled 'deserters,' who are really
stragglers, and would be a good offset to such of our stragglers and
foragers as your cavalry picked up of our men; but I am constrained to
give these men, though sorely against the grain, the benefit of their
character, pretended or real."
This did not suit Hood, who replied:
"Your refusal to receive, in exchange, your soldiers belonging to
'regiments whose times are out, and who have been discharged,'
discloses a fixed purpose on the part of your Government to doom to
hopeless captivity those prisoners whose term of service have expired,
or will soon expire.
"My offer to exchange the prisoners captured during the campaign
precludes an intention on my part in the delivery to discriminate
between your prisoners, as all would have been delivered; and even had
it been intended, this discrimination between your men, whose term of
service had and had not expired, would have been impossible, and could
not have been effected, as I had no reliable means of ascertaining what
portion of your men were entitled to their discharge.
"Your avowal that this class of your soldiers will not be exchanged,
but will be rewarded by the sufferings and privations incident to
military imprisonment because their boldness and courage subjected them
to capture, although their terms of service has nearly expired, is
deeply regretted by me, as I have the earnest desire of my Government
to release from prolonged confinement the large number of prisoners
held by both parties."
An exchange of about two thousand prisoners was, however effected.
During the truce, four hundred and forty-six families were sent South.
These comprised 705 adults, 860 children, and 79 servants, and each
family took on the average, 1651 pounds of furniture and other personal
effects.
At the end of October, Sherman was ready to continue his campaign.
He had corresponded with Grant on the subject and had intimated to
him what he proposed to do. Grant replied to him, on November 2d,
"Go on, then, as you propose." Thus the credit of the historic march
that followed must be given to Sherman himself,--the conception of
it as well as its execution. "The honor is all yours," said Lincoln
afterward; "none of us went further than to acquiesce."
But Sherman had not stated positively, not even to Grant, what his
objective point was, whether Charleston or Savannah, or even Pensacola.
He proposed to march from Atlanta to the sea; that was all. What road
he would follow, he would decide for himself and he would keep his
own counsel. And in order to isolate Atlanta and render it useless to
the enemy and that there might be no interference with his plans as
he proceeded, he performed the unique act of destroying utterly the
railways and telegraph by which he had communicated with the North.
When everything was ready, and the final messages transmitted between
himself and Grant, he cut the last remaining wire, and thence forward
for a time, was lost to the Nation's view. His conquering host became
known as "the lost army." This was on November 12th. On the 14th his
army was ready for the march, and on the 15th the drums beat and they
moved forward.
Acting under the grim necessities of war, Sherman sent this order to
Captain Poe: "You may commence the work of destruction at once, but
don't use fire until towards the last moment." Thus much of the City
of Atlanta was destroyed, and it was past smoking ruins that Sherman's
army marched forward to the sea.
The army was divided, for the purposes of this march, into two great
wings. The right, keeping its army name, was commanded by General
Howard, and consisted of the Fifteenth Corps, under Osterhaus, and the
Seventeenth Corps, under Blair. The left, called Army of Georgia, was
commanded by General Slocum, and consisted of the Fourteenth Corps,
under J. C. Davis, and the Twentieth Corps, under A. S. Williams. In
all there were about 60,000 infantry and 60 cannon. In addition, there
was a cavalry division of 5,500 men, under General Kilpatrick.
General Howard was now 34 years old; a native of Maine, and a graduate
of West Point in the class of 1854. He had served in Florida against
the Indians, and as an instructor at West Point. He had joined the
army again as Colonel of the first three years' regiment that came
from Maine; had commanded a brigade at Bull Run and served with the
Army of the Potomac until the battle of Fair Oaks, where he had lost
his right arm while leading a gallant charge. Two months later, he had
returned to active service in time to be at the second battle of Bull
Run, where he commanded the rear guard on the retreat. He had rendered
distinguished service at Antietam and Fredericksburg, and also at
Chancellorsville. He had been one of the chief actors at Gettysburg,
being responsible for the selection of the invincible position at
Cemetery Ridge occupied by the Union Army. His gallantry at Missionary
Ridge has already been recorded in these pages, and he had also marched
with Sherman to the relief of Burnside at Knoxville. His Christian
character and his intellectual attainments made him as acceptable as a
man as he was as a brave and skilful General.
General Slocum, a native of New York State, had been graduated at West
Point two years before Howard. After some military service he had
become a practicing lawyer and active in the politics of his State.
At the outbreak of the war he had returned to the army as Colonel of
one of the first three years' regiments sent from New York. He had
served with honor at Bull Run and with the Army of the Potomac on the
Rappahannock and at Yorktown and all through the Peninsula campaign
from West Point, Va., to Malvern Hill. He had won great distinction at
South Mountain and Antietam, at Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville and
Gettysburg. He and Howard were trusted lieutenants of Sherman in the
great campaign that was now to be undertaken.
Kilpatrick came from New Jersey, and was only 26 years old. He had been
graduated at West Point in 1861, just in time to rush to the front with
Duryeas's Zouaves, and received a slight wound at Big Bethel. Then he
received a cavalry command and pursued a brilliant career with the Army
of the Potomac, until he was sent to assist Sherman in Georgia.
General Thomas was now at Nashville, and Schofield en route near
Pulaski, Tennessee, ready to deal with Hood on his northwestern march.
In Sherman's army there were few non-combatants and sick men. There was
a goodly supply of ammunition, but provisions were scanty. It was the
intention of the army to live off the enemy's country as they marched
through it. Sherman's orders for the campaign were as follows:
"I. For the purpose of military operations, this army is divided
into two wings, viz., the right wing, Major-General O. O. Howard
commanding, composed of the Fifteenth and Seventeenth Corps; the
left wing, Major-General H. W. Slocum commanding, composed of the
Fourteenth and Twentieth Corps.
"II. The habitual order of march will be, whenever practicable,
by four roads, as nearly parallel as possible, and converging
at points hereafter to be indicated in orders. The cavalry,
Brigadier-General Kilpatrick commanding, will receive special
orders from the commander-in-chief.
"III. There will be no general trains of supplies, but each
corps will have its ammunition and provision trains distributed
habitually as follows: Behind each regiment should follow one
wagon and one ambulance; behind each brigade should follow a
due proportion of ammunition wagons, provision wagons, and
ambulances. In case of danger, each army corps commander should
change this order of march by having his advance and rear
brigade unencumbered by wheels. The separate columns will start
habitually at 7 A. M., and make about 15 miles per day, unless
otherwise fixed in orders.
"IV. The army will forage liberally on the country during the
march. To this end, each brigade commander will organize a good
and sufficient foraging party, under the command of one or more
discreet officers, who will gather near the route travelled corn
or forage of any kind, meat of any kind, vegetables, corn-meal,
or whatever is needed by the command, aiming at all times to
keep in the wagon trains at least ten days' provisions for the
command, and three days' forage. Soldiers must not enter the
dwellings of the inhabitants, or commit any trespass; but during
the halt, or at camp, they may be permitted to gather turnips,
potatoes, and other vegetables, and drive in stock which is
in sight of their camp. To regular foraging parties must be
intrusted the gathering of provisions and forage at any distance
from the road travelled.
"V. To army commanders alone is intrusted the power to destroy
mills, houses, cotton-gins, etc., and for them this general
principle is laid down: In districts and neighborhoods where
the army is unmolested, no destruction of such property should
be permitted; but should guerrillas or bushwhackers molest our
march, or should the inhabitants burn bridges, obstruct roads, or
otherwise manifest local hostility, then army corps commanders
should order and enforce a devastation more or less relentless,
according to the measure of such hostility.
"VI. As for horses, mules, wagons, etc., belonging to the
inhabitants, the cavalry and artillery may appropriate freely and
without limit, discriminating, however, between the rich, who are
usually hostile, and the poor or industrious, who are usually
neutral or friendly. Foraging parties may also take mules or
horses to replace the jaded animals of their trains, or to serve
as pack-mules for the regiments or brigades. In all foraging,
of whatever kind, the parties engaged will refrain from abusive
or threatening languages, and may, when the officer in command
thinks proper, give written certificates of the facts, but no
receipts, and they will endeavor to leave with each family a
reasonable portion for their maintenance.
"VII. Negroes who are able-bodied, and can be of service to the
several columns, may be taken along, but each army commander will
bear in mind that the question of supplies is a very important
one, and that his first duty is to see to those who bear arms.
"VIII. The organization at once of a good pioneer battalion for
each corps, composed, if possible, of negroes, should be attended
to. This battalion should follow the advance guard, should
repair roads, and double them if possible, so that the columns
may not be delayed on reaching bad places. Also, army commanders
should study the habit of giving the artillery and wagons the
road, and marching their troops on one side, and also instruct
their troops to assist wagons at steep hills or bad crossings of
streams.
"IX. Captain O. M. Poe, chief engineer, will assign to each wing
of the army a pontoon train, fully equipped and organized, and
the commanders thereof will see to its being properly protected
at all times."
[Illustration: BATTLE OF ATLANTA--THE CONTEST ON BALD HILL.]
On November 12th, at Cartersville, Sherman sat on the edge of a porch
to rest. The telegraph wire had been torn down, but the operator
connected the end of it with a small pocket instrument which he held in
his hand as he stood at Sherman's side. A dispatch was received from
Thomas at Nashville. Sherman answered it, "All right." The wire was
detached from the instrument, and then a burning bridge fell in ruins,
dragging down more of the line, and Sherman was absolutely isolated
from the North.
As they marched away from Atlanta, Slocum's men passed the very
spot where McPherson fell, and at the moment, doubtless with a grim
satisfaction, looked back at the pall of smoke that hung above Atlanta,
as above a fitting funeral pyre for their dead comrade and leader. Then
some one in the ranks, or one of the bands, struck up "John Brown's
Body," and a minute later the Army of Georgia was singing that famous
battle hymn, and marching forward with quickened pace to its inspiring
strains.